@Jan_RI Ok, this is pretty complicated, and I am trying to figure it out. I would suggest you consult a tax attorney, CPA, or enrolled agent who specializes in foreign income. I do not want to suggest that I am sure of an answer in your specific case.
The facts matter a lot. For example, I don't think you have specified your citizenship or residence status or the details of the pension or where it was earned, public sector, private sector, etc.
The treaty provisions you cite give France the right to tax a French pension (provided you met the requirements, I can't know that without more detail). However, the "Savings Clause" -- Article 29.2 gives the US the right to tax all income if you are a US citizen or a US resident. The "notwithstanding" overrides anything else to the contrary. Yet 29.3 says 29.2 does not apply to Article 19 and 18(1)(b). Again we don't know if your reference to 18.1 is to (b) or another part of 18.
If the savings clause applies, check Article 24 to see if you are covered, and that provides something that the statutory FTC does not, like a resourcing rule. That probably isn't necessary if the foreign pension is foreign source (see below).
If the savings clause doesn't apply, then what I am wondering about is whether you could simply exclude the foreign pension from income totally and not even report it. Treas. Reg. 1.8941-1(a) first sentence. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/1.894-1 ... if so you would need to 8833 unless, as you suggest, there is an exception for this kind of pension. Even if you don't need an 8833 you might want to include a statement saying what you are doing. That could help avoid gross misstatement of income penalties should you be wrong.
However, I think you could also go down the FTC route if your research shows pensions earned overseas follow the foreign sourcing rule for the personal services provided overseas to earn the pension. See IRC 862(a)(3).
You can see there are a lot of things in play. I can only give you things to consider, not specially apply the law to your facts.
This videos might be of interest. Kind of long. Maybe as AI to summarize them.
https://youtu.be/YQUiRKM2ddo?si=HfHn9hClN09PGc0- (at about minute 39 there is a foreign pension mention)
https://youtu.be/P-d2hzfjijc?si=6MyA01qFVgxE_wBq
https://youtu.be/D4ujisPo2SE?si=OLHxep0NMkxCWPcr
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